It has been a while since my last post. Actually, I just re-read my last post and discovered it was about the so called "Super Tuesday" of the primary schedule, so it has been exactly 9 days! I appologize to any of the readers I have out there for the delay. (Funny sidenote about my "readers": It seems as though my counter has been steadily increasing with more and more traffic, but still I receive no comments? Please, if you dropped by, read my postings, and are inspired to either anger or adoration, share those feelings with me!)

So..WOW, what a 9 days it has been in the campaign of Barack Obama. I think anyone who follows politics, and who has followed closely this inspirational and improbable run of Obama's knew that February was going to be a good month. The states that hold contests this month, and the fact that most all of these states are "caucus" states, plays well into his campain's strengths. It was easy to look forward at the beginning of this month, and know that he had potential to win most, if not all, of the contests and close the overall delegate lead (thanks to the "superdelegates" that pledged way too eary!) that Sen. Clinton has enjoyed this entire race. That said, I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone, outside of maybe Sen. Obama's wife and kids, who thought he was going to do THIS well!

So far this month (not including the Super Tuesday in which he won 13 out of 21 races), he has won all 8 of the primary contests held around the country. On the 9th of Feb., he won in Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington and The Virgin Islands. The next day, he won in Maine. He followed those 5 wins up with 3 more yesterday in Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. Looking forward to next Tuesday, you have to think (looking at the polls) that he will easily win in Hawai'i and decisively win in Wisconsin. That would be a string of 10 states, and a post "Super Tuesday" sweep of February! The impressive part of this run to me, is not merely the fact that he is "winning" these states (because, as we know, they are not winner take all contests, the second place finisher gets votes as well), it is the margains by which he is winning these states.

If you take an average of the margains of all the states won, you will see he is winning by an average of just over 30% per race! That is a clear and decisive margain. That is a margain which has allowed him to not only close the delegate gap with Sen. Clinton, but to leap past her in the total count, even when you factor in the large number of her superdelegates. That margain is displaying a "turn" or a shift in the Democratic party as a whole, away from the Clintons and the politics of the past, and towards a brave new future with the Obamas.

I don't want to get too far ahead of myself here. I know that there are still a lot of votes to be cast, a lot of delegates to gather, and a lot of states coming down the pipe that don't always favor Sen. Obama as much as the states of February have. I also know that Sen. Clinton is not likely to bow out of this race easily or gracefully in order to foster some sense of "Democratic unity" for the upcoming general election in November. My hunch is she will need to be pulled from this race, kicking and screaming (most likely screaming about Florida and Michigan!). But, I can't deny that something is happening here. I can't as easily hide behind my pragmatisism and just "know" that this is a nice run, but at the end of the day we will just have politics and politicians as usual. I can't help but start to feel that "Yes We Can" is becoming "Yes We Are"!

Thanks for reading! GObama!